Equation 11 · Part 2 · AI Accelerator Architecture in 2035: Scenarios, Signals, and Falsifiable Predictions
=
=
What this part means
The expressions on both sides represent the same quantity under the stated assumptions.
Its job in the formula
The equals sign connects the complete expression on the left with the complete expression on the right. Both sides must have compatible units.
Full expression→=→Article meaning
The passage around this formula
with the second term the amortised metadata tax. The OCP MX alliance’s MXFP4 uses w = 4 , k = 32 , and an 8-bit shared scale, for = 4.25 bits per element — a roughly 6% tax [ 4 ] . NVIDIA’s NVFP4 instead uses a smaller block, k = 16 , with the same 8-bit block scale plus a near-negligible per-tensor term, for 4.5 bits per element — a roughly 12.5% tax [ 5 ] . The smaller block buys better local adaptation to each block’s dynamic range, which is the stated reason NVIDIA gives for its accuracy results at 4-bit precision [ 5 ] ; the price is paid in the overhead fraction, s/(kw) , which is exactly double NVFP4’s block-16 tax at block-32. Analysis. That…
Learn the underlying idea
An equals sign says that the expression on its left and the expression on its right have the same value under the stated definitions and assumptions.
Open the illustrated equality: what the equals sign claims guide →
Sources cited in the surrounding passage
- [4] Microscaling Data Formats for Deep Learning ↗
- [5] Introducing NVFP4 for Efficient and Accurate Low-Precision Inference ↗
These citations provide research context; check each source for the exact claim it supports.